Collapsible gate



Feb. 20, 1951 R. I. NIGHTINGALE ,5

COLLAPSIBLE GATE Filed Jan. 7, 1946 2 Sheets-Sheet l l9 ,9 /2 1 /2 {4 32;: x C 7' I 7 Q Inventor lfoscoe Z flyfiiz'zywfis Feb. 20, 1951 R. 1. NlGHTlNGALE 2,542,156

COLLAPSIBLE GATE Filed Jan. 7, 1 946 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Inventor yg coe I. N'ybiz'rgale Patented F eb. 20, 1951 UNITED STATE PATENT OFFICE;

doLLAPsIBLii GATE,

Roscoe I.- Nightingale,- l henii, Ariz'; Application jamlary 7, 1946, Serial fio. 639,5 3' claims. (01. 160-461) p The present invention relates to an improved foldable or collapsible fence such as serves as a temporary gate.

More particularly, the invention appeftains to a lattice-like gate, the latter being foldabl'e and being so designed and specifically constructed as to function as a guard for an open doorway, whereby to provide a simple and practical device such as may be temporarily placed in the (160% way, this in a inanner to prevent small children from passing from one room to another through said thus guarded doorway.

In carrying out theprinciples of the invention I thus provide a foldable doorway gate, the sanie characterized by overlapping pivotally connected bars or slats and certain of said slats, being pro vided on their outer ends with especially constructed adapters, the latter being so made as to irictiona'lly grip portions of the door frame,

this in a manner to satisfactorily hold the gate, as a unit, in place. p 7

Another object of the invention is to provide a safety gate of the aforementioned type in which the sd-called adapters are in the form of rubber or equivalently padded forks said forks serving to straddle those surfaces of the door frarne with which they directly ooac't. N

Other objects, features and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following description and the accompanying illustrative drawings. J

In the drawings, wherein like numerals are employed to designate like parts throughout the views:

Figure 1 is an elevational View showing an open doorway and also showing the improved safety gate positioned therein and ready for use, H

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary view which may be said to be taken on approximately on the line 22 of Figure 1, I

Figure 3 is a view partly in section and partly in elevation showing an outer end of one of the bars or slats, the same equipped withthe aforementioned adapter or fork,

Figure 4 is an end view of the structure seen in Figure 3,

Figure 5 is a view siinilar to Figure 3 showing-a diiierent style of adapter, this an all rubber yp Figure 6 is an end view of the type or style of adapter seen in Figure 5. v

Referring now to the drawings by distinguishing reference characters A designates a door frame or an open doorway in a wall constr'iictidn B. The improved safety gate is'fittd temporarily Ill and removatiy in the lower half portion Of the doorway and is detachably mounted on the door name, said gate being denoted, generally speaking, by the nurneral [0. Looking at the gate as an overall unit it is of open-work or lattice like form. It is therefdi'i' of the shape and the general appearances illustratedin the drawings. It is made up of a plurality of slats or bars interconnected and pivotally connected as shown. The upper pair of downwardly converging" slats are denoted by the numerals H' and the slats of the lower pair are denoted by the numerals I2. The intermediate or body slats are differentiated and denoted by thenumerals i3. 7

The assembling and hinging connection for the various slats are denoted by the numerals M. Specifically, these connectors are in the form of headed pins as shown in Figure 2, said pins being indicatedby' the said numeral is and the pins axially extend through thickened portions I5 of thea'djacent interconnected and overlapping slats. Washers I6 are on these pins and interposed between the portions [5 keeping said portions in spaced apartrelationship and providing the desired clearances. Additional washers fl are provided onopposite headed ends of the pivot pins to render the connection also freely operable. The majoiportions of the slats,- the portions I 8 ranging between the h-in'ging portions [dare relatively thin; The slats are so constructed and interconnected as to render sanie freely expansible and contractible for compactnes's, convenience and folding; There is also less chance of small tots pinching fingers between the slats wheiithey are constructed as herein shown and described;

The adapters are denoted, as general units, by the numerals [Q in Figure 3 and Kid in Figures 5 and 6. In either instance each adapter is in the form of a fork whose fingers are fork-ends straddle the coacting stops in the door frarne construeson. The adapter l9 in Figure 3 comprises a pair of arms having inner ends Zfi pinned or otherwise secured in place as at 25. The outer ends of the arms project and curve properly as indicated at 22 and these ends are fashioned to accommodate semi-spherical tips o r buffers 23, the latter ofrubber or equivaiem material.

The adapters of Figures 5 and 6 are also in the form of suitably proportioned forks but are each niadeof one'piece of'ruhbe'r. This includes a socket' 24 fitted over the slat ends, said socket carrying retaining-fingers or fork arins Itis to be noted, in bassin that the inner ends of the respective slats I 2, H are suitably in'arked as by coloring and a indicated at the point 26, these coacting to denote the upper end of said gate.

It is to be noted that there are, in the simple embodiment of the invention shown in the drawings, four distinguishable slat units; namely, A, B, C and D which go to make up the complete gate. Unit A comprises a pair of duplicate relatively long slats l2-i2 and these are centrally overlapped and hingedly connected to one another to provide upper and lower diverging end portions and to define a so-called X-shaped slat unit. The lower diverging ends, the ends closest to the floor, are provided with the aforementioned cushioned adapters or grips and these grips, when in place, support the major portion of the weight of the entire gate. The uppermost inverted U-shaped unit B comprises a pair of slats HIl which are conveniently differentiated as secondary slats and these slats hav their outer ends provided with corresponding adapters 24 which bind against the door frame and suspend a part of the weight, but are, primarily, retainers to prevent the gate from being pushed and thus displaced from the doorway frame. In connection with the secondary slats ill i, it is to be noted that the hinge connection between the inner ends is inwardly of the tips of said ends, thereby permitting said tip portions to project beyond the hinge connection. It is these projecting tips or ends which are marked to denote the upper side of the gate and to facilitate properly lodging the gate in a doorway frame. There is a second V-shaped slat unit C comprising a pair of duplicate slats ldl4 also shorter than the slats l2-l2 in said X-shaped unit A and of lengths corresponding to the slats il-H in said inverted V-shaped slat unit B. Said slats lfil4 have their inward ends slightly overlapped and hingedly connected together and have their intermediate portions crossing and hinged to the respective intermediate portions of the diverging lower end portions of the slats l2-l2 of the X-shaped unit A. The remaining additional slats [3-43 have their intermediate portions overlapped and hingedly connected with each other to define the remaining slat unit D called the second X-shaped unit. The lower diverging end portions of slats 13 are hingedly connected to the intermediate upper end portions of slats l2 and the extreme lower ends of slats l3 are hingedly connected to the upper ends of the slats i l-I 3 in unit 0. Finally, the upper ends of the slats Iii-I3 are hingedly connected to the intermediate portions of slats I l-l l. The upper grips are only on the outer ends of the slats l 1-! I while the remaining grips are on the lower ends only of the slats l2--|2. It will be noted that these lower ends of slats I2l2 and the outer ends of slats H-ll are directly above each other when the gate is in use, as shown in Figure 1, and actually project to positions beyond the outer ends of the additional slats in units C and D. Consequently, the outer ends of the slats C and D are spaced inwardly and are clear of contact with the door frame. This means, therefore, that the gate as a unit has four-point engagement with the coacting portions of the door frame.

The invention, as is now evident, is an easily placed and removed gate to be used in the home and other places to keep small children and pets from passing from one room to another while at the same time leaving the door (not shown) open.

When one wishes to use the gate they simply open it up and set it in the doorway. The rubber tipped feet or forks are so shaped that they will fit on each side of the door stops, thus holding the gate securely in place. When not in use the gate folds up into a compact form. The rubber tips of the feet prevent the gate from marring the finish of doorways.

Changes in shape, size, materials and rearrangement of details and parts may be resorted to in actual practice, so long as they do not depart from the spirit of the invention or the scope of the appended claims, as is well understood.

I claim:

1. A foldable, readily applicable and removable fence adapted to be removably placed across an open doorway frame and usable as a safety gate comprising an X-shaped slat unit made up of a pair of duplicate relatively long slats, said slats being overlapped at their central portions and hingedly connected to each other, the lower diverging ends of said slats being provided with adapters, said adapters having outstanding cushioned arms adapted to straddle and releasably grip a portion of the doorway frame, a second slat unit, said second unit being of inverted V-shaped form, the outer ends of the slats being foldably connected to the upper diverging end portions of the slats of said X-shaped unit and being provided with outstanding spaced adapters, said adapters also having cushioned arms which are adapted to straddle coacting portions of the stated doorway frame, the inner adjacent ends of the slats of said inverted V-shaped unit being overlapped and crossing each other and hingedly connected together with the extremities projecting slightly beyond the latter hinged connection, said extensions being adapted to distinguish the upper portion of the gate from the lower portion and to thus facilitate the step of placing the gate in position for use and subsequently removing it, and a plurality of additional slats hingedly and foldably connected with one another and collectively mounted on the adjacent slats of the stated X-shaped and V-shaped units, the outer ends of the slats in said V-shaped unit and the lower ends of the slats in said X-shaped unit being adapted to occupy portions directly above one another but spaced outwardly from the corresponding ends of said additional slats.

2. The structure defined in claim 1, wherein the major portions of each slat are relatively thin and restricted in cross-section and corresponding minor portions of the slats are comparatively thick, the thick portions of respectively coacting slats being aligned, overlapped and hingedly connected, and the thin portions being spaced from each other to prevent direct wiping contact of said thin portions, whereby to prevent faceto-face scissors-like shearing and to minimize finger pinching during spreading and folding stages of the over-all slats.

3. A foldable, readily applicable and removable fence adapted to be removably placed across an open doorway frame and usable as a safety gate comprising an X-shaped slat unit made up of a pair of duplicate relatively long slats, said slats being overlapped at their central portions and hingedly connected to each other, the lower diverging ends of said slats being provided with adapters, said adapters having outstanding cushioned arms adapted to straddle and releasably grip a portion of the doorway frame, a second slat unit, said second unit being of inverted V-shaped form, the outer ends of the slats being foldably connected to the upper diverging end portions of the slats of said X-shaped unit and being provided with outstanding spaced adapters, said adapters also having cushioned arms which are adapted to straddle coacting portions of the stated doorway frame, the inner adjacent ends of the slats of said inverted V-shaped unit being overlapped and crossin each other and hingedly connected together with the extremities projecting slightly beyond the latter hinged connection, said extensions being adapted to distinguish the upper portion of the gate from the lower portion and to thus facilitate the step of placing th gate in position for use and subsequently removing it, a second V-shaped slat unit comprising a pair of duplicate slats also shorter than the slats in said X-shaped unit and of lengths corresponding to the slats in said inverted V-shaped slat unit, the slats in said second V-shaped slat unit having their inward ends slightly overlapped and hingedly connected, having their intermediate portions crossing and hinged to the respective intermediate portions of the diverging lower end portions of the slats of the X-shaped unit, and additional slats hinged at their lower ends to the upper ends of the slat in said second V-shaped unit and having their upper ends operativel connected with the slats of the inverted V-shaped unit, said additional slats having intermediate portions overlapped and hingedly joined and providing a second X-shaped unit and also having said intermediate portions crossing and hingedly connected with intermediate portions of the upper diverging end portions of the respective slats of said first-named X-shaped unit, the outer ends of the slats in said second V-shaped unit and second X-shaped unit being spaced inwardly of th outer ends of the slats of the inverted V-shaped unit and the lower ends of the slats of the first-mentioned X-shaped unit.

ROSCOE I. NIGHTINGALE.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the file of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 145,773 White Dec. 23, 1873 216,712 Walton June 17, 1879 2,348,561 Mutch May 9, 1944 

